I've recently acquired some great CDs, and after some months of intense listening, I would like to share with you guys some lesser known and underrated acts during the late '60s.

1. Free - Tons of Sobs.
Any aspiring electric blues player should give this album a spin. Lots of wicked riffs by the late Paul Kossoff, and the best thing is, in my humble opinion, they're more easier to replicate by us mere mortals than solos by Clapton or Page. Worry, I'm a Mover, the Hunter are among the best tracks on this record. Free keeps it tight but loose (?) throughout the album. Unfortunately, their next album was rather draggy, but on Fire and Water they bounced back, with the infective All Right Now leading the charge. Still, I feel Free's debut album is their best, as they'd nothing to prove and nothing to lose as well. Without any pressure on their shoulders, they rocked and rocked they did.

2. Michael Bloomfield - Super Sessions
Mike Bloomfield throws his gauntlet at the British upstarts in this magnificent album, thrusting out orgasmic licks in almost every bar. Unlike Clapton and Page, which utilizes heavy, overdriven tone from their Marshalls, Bloomfield phrasing was beautifully clean and fluid throughout. My personal favorite, well, I liked four of the five tracks, and it's pretty hard to choose. Although there are only five songs here, Bloomfield's converts can go back to his tenure with Electric Flag (Texas, Drinkin' Wine) and when he first started out with his Telecaster with two albums with Paul Butterfield.

3. Rory Gallagher - Taste
SRV wasn't the only one with a famous sunburst 60s Strat. Gallagher broke on the scene with his band Taste, and his tone at this time was a 60s Strat with a treble booster in front of a Vox AC30 (demonstrated most convincely on the track Blister on the Moon). Rory mixed in some Irish folkish elements on this album, but on Catfish and Sugar Mama he showed he could play the blues as well as anyone else in Britain.

4. Then Play On - Fleetwood Mac
Not to be confused with the Stevie Nicks incarnation, the Mac at this time was just not another tight but loose blues outfit. With Green ceding most of the lead guitar parts to his protege Danny Kirwan, Then Play On was certainly one of the best blues (?) record in that era. It was a glimpse of a more mellow direction that the band was taking, but blues purists shouldn't be worried: Searching/Fighting for Madge, Rattlesnake Shake and, the unforgettable Oh Well should satisfy your cravings. Earlier work without Kirwan is also worth mentioning, with Jeremy Spencer's slide work a la Elmore James (it got terribly similar after a few listens) but on tracks where Green played lead, it was pure magic.

5. Truth - Jeff Beck Group
Jeff Beck certainly didn't get as much attention as Clapton or Hendrix, but he was playing with fuzz and overdrive way before both of them. On this album he got about as hot and heavy as he's gonna get, with some superb wah work on I Ain't Superstitious, blues standards Rock My Plimsoul, Blues Deluxe, Let Me Love You, the prog-rock Beck's Bolero, and well, you just have to check this out yourself!

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This post has been edited by dilin: Apr 16 2008, 11:59 AM